I have had the privilege to grow up in the New Orleans metro area that mainly has given me Mardi Gras. I still remember the time when I found out Mardi Gras wasn’t a national holiday—absolutely shocked me! (It had about the same effect just as when I found out that South-western Louisiana was special in which we did not believe in the words "dry county". Imagine this: a twelve year old goes on a family vacation in Tennessee in which we make a pit stop at the local grocer for some food. It was an unfamiliar store, but still, every store had the same layout, including bread usually being found just around the liquor/wine/beer section…but wait…there is no liquor/wine/beer section here. What in the world?…Hmph…a twelve year old using the liquor section as a guide…) Luckily for me, I am still here in Mardi Gras Headquarters after all these years.
Though I am not one for the hustle and bustle of the season, being worn out of it in my teenage years, I still appreciate what we got. It’s hard not to…unless you are one of the Christian supporters that come into our town each year to spread the message that if you are there enjoying the festivies you are going to go to hell. (I never cared for those folk…there message, to be honest, just doesn’t seem very Christian like. "Ye without sin cast the first stone…" and all of that. Plus, Mardi Gras has very, very strong Christian roots. Party hard and than pray like there’s no tommorrow.) It’s ashame the never stopped to look around and see the good that Mardi Gras brings.
First, as for as I ever have noticed, there is no city quite like New Orleans that know how to party right. Mardi Gras is over a hundred years old and still going strong. Our city’s biggest distinction from ever one else’s sad attempt to recreate what we got going is NOT about booze and tits. (Sorry to disappoint…it’s mainly a effect out of the cause, if ya’ get my meaning.) It’s the trinkets. The beads* and dolls* and coconuts* (kudos to Zulu for creating that cool tradition) and those plastic cups* and those really cheesy, but fun as heck noisemakers* that parade riders pay for out of their own pockets (*all collectively called throws; there’s your education for the day!!). Not the city, but the riders. And believe me, it is not cheap. My aunt, uncle and cousin ride in parades every so often, and from what they told, supplies averaged about $500 a person. And get this, most of the throws my family had were collected from past parades; in other words, it would have been more costly than that!!!
Second, look at the floats. They are a work of art that are mainly done with the artistic talent of the employees of Blaine Kern'sYou haven’t seen Mardi Gras until you seen these floats in action. The colors are so bold and bright that it can give you the sensation of being in some sort of wonderland. Especially at night with the only illumination being the floats themselves which are intertwined with lights everywhere on them.
Third, are the Flambeaux guys. They are mainly men who carry these large, metal framed gas powered flames that illuminate the parade route the old fashion way. Only a few parades are marched by them, though it use to be the norm ages ago. It’s so surreal to see how the flames illuminations makes everyone and everything around it around it have a ghastly glow. And really cool!
In the end, everybody has got to experience Mardi Gras at least once in your lives. I can’t tell you that it’s amazing, and that you are simply never gonna forget it and always will want to come back cause, well, you may not. It isn’t for everyone. But it definitely is not an experience you’ll forget. Ever.
There’s so much more I could tell you about it though you really need to see why it’s such a big deal. I left out the King Cake which is so addictively sweet and best served with a side order of Popeye’s Chicken. ( Now that is a Mardi Gras tradition for me! Yum!) I forgot to mention the costumes that came be loud and outraegous, politically hilarious, traditionally beautiful or simply not there ( as in ala skin, if ya get my meaning!).
And for the folks that can’t do without that little eyeful and a little of the extreme, there always is Bourbon Street, which, 24 hours a day, will have what you’re looking for!
Simply put,
HAPPY MARDI GRAS TO EVERYONE!!
**Stayed tune for the semi-exciting tale of Java FooFoo's Lundi Gras! **
2.08.2005
Happy Mardi Gras 2005
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1 comment:
well, Mardi Gras does seem to be quite an adventure in your town out in a state that is Louisiana! It seems there are many things that go on in that town, as well as parads, which is something that is quite unique to see in a good way, as I have tended to only see them in reference to fire trucks and the little bands which play and hopefully someone atop a float will throw candy. But yours is something quite different and I really should just like to have a few beads that are given to me by someone in a parade or other such place in New Orleans, which would be just such a treat--and I'm so thankful that you visited my site and now I know that you are a female, which is a rare commenter on my blog, and to that, I am also grateful, because it's like I always say, "If you only have conversations with one sex of the human race, well, then you are not getting the full effect of both sexes of the human race, and don't we need both to continue our race in the first place?"
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